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Chaltay Chaltay and ice-cream

As a strong proponent of unity between the people of India and Pakistan, I am always pleased to see artists from both countries collaborate for a work product. Here is one such recent example, a music video for Jal -- a pop music group in Pakistan -- starring Bollywood's very own Amrita Rao!

Now, I do not mean to endorse Walls ice-cream here at all, but I do have memories associated with the brand (and others), and figured this would be a good time to note them.

1. I like the placement of the Cornetto ice-cream. Walls (a Unilever brand) penetrated the Pakistan market in the mid-1990s. I spent a few summers in Karachi, and every kid and teen in the neighborhood would run after the Walls-wallah. One couldn't help but feel somewhat bad for the ice-candy man (ice-candy is popularly known as 'gola-ganda'), whose products offered a paradox in decision-making, for they were the high-risk/high-reward type (the risk of a sore throat or unclean water in the product, the reward of a better treat if the water and syrups used were clean).

- A couple of summers into the Walls era, when we would sometimes be at the cricket grounds on hot summer afternoons, we would look forward to the Walls-wallah's musical rickshaw to a point where the ice-creams, particularly the Cornettos, became an extension of our diets. For better or for worse.

- Then again, having lived in India for nearly a decade before spending some time in Pakistan, I was still probably more of a Cadbury's Dollops ice-cream person any way. Their black-currant ice-creams were the best-in-class! But my favorite ice-cream parlor was by far Snowman's on Bhulabhai Desai Road. It was part of a weekend routine of sorts.

- And there was the Yankee Doodle ice-cream parlor outside Hotel Natraj on Marine Drive (very close to where I lived), which was quite the rage back in the day as well. And let's not forget the Kwality brand, which is now (you got it) 'Kwality-Walls'! (If you are a fan of ice-cream brands in India, you will enjoy this post at Youth Curry.)

2. Amrita Rao is not a surprising Bollywood choice for Jal's video. If my Pakistani friends in the U.S. offer a fair indicator, Amrita Rao is a fan-favorite in Pakistan, for Vivah (2006) was a big hit there.

Here is the commercial for a Walls ice-cream product with the same song in the backdrop. Speaking of Jal, I really enjoyed their recent release titled Boondh (which means 'drop' as in 'drop of water'). And here is a prediction -- if former Jal vocalist Atif Aslam can be as successful as he has been in Bollywood (what with songs like 'Woh Lamhein' from Zeher (2005), or Pehli Nazar from Race (2008) ), surely, current vocalist Farhan Saeed can do better. In my humble opinion, he has absolutely outdone his counterpart in their near-concurrent album releases!

Hi, Salek: Thank you for your comment. I shall check out some of the other recommendations (only seen the song from Zinda so far), thank you!

Indians and Pakistanis do have a LOT in common. Based on my experience living in both countries for five plus years each, I just wished they liked each other more. :) Then again, we shall make a difference!

As for Sajni from the album Boondh...I truly liked the song, but not its video. It reminded me too much of a couple of Evanescence videos. :'(

I recently saw Vivah, where Amrita Rao was in a completely different avatar than in this video. She really has proven her versatility as an actress, from Masti to Main Hoon Na to Vivah. How actresses like Katrina Kaif have found more success than her is beyond me.

Amrita Rao was excellent in Vivah. She was very good in Main Hoon Na as well. Those are her two films that come to mind.

Katrina Kaif might have had the added advantage of Salman Khan's backing when she started (which is balanced by Amrita getting a platform of sorts in a Shah Rukh starrer), but some of her performances, especially in Namastey London and Partner (both from 2007) were very excellent. I think she's earned a lot of her success too.

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